Top 10 Songs with Unusual / Odd Time Signatures

Time signatures are also known as meter signatures and measure signatures.

An unusual time signature is any time signature other than simple time signatures. The most common simple time signatures are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4. Simple time signatures have top numerals of 2, 3, or 4, and bottom numerals of 2, 4, or 8. Compound time signatures, on the other hand, have top numerals of 6, 9, or 12, and bottom numerals of 4, 8, or 16.

Unusual (odd) time signatures include meters like 5/4, 6/4, 19/4, 7/8, 9/8, 13/8, 13/16, 21/16, 23/16, 17/32, 21/32, 1/64, and others. These time signatures are both the dream and the nightmare of every drummer.

While progressive metal and rock are genres well known for their use of unusual time signatures, prog subgenres are not the only styles to incorporate them. Bands like Dream Theater, Tool, and Radiohead frequently employ these complex meters.

The Top Ten

  1. The Dance of Eternity - Dream Theater

    Dream Theater has many songs to choose from for this list, but I have chosen this instrumental because it goes through over 128 time signature changes in 6:13 minutes. It contains beat groupings in 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4.

    Was this song the dream of the Dream Theater drummer? Or his nightmare?

    It's Dream Theater. Of course, it's gonna have something hard to play and weird. Duh.

  2. Money - Pink Floyd

    It's predominantly in 7/4 time. The guitar solo, however, is in the usual 4/4.

  3. Bleed - Meshuggah

    13/16. Perfect drumming by Tomas Haake.

    The bass drum pattern is a repeated sequence of 13/16, followed by one measure of 4/4.

    Haake stated that this song was "a big effort for me to learn. I had to find a totally new approach to playing the double bass drums to be able to do that stuff. I had never really done anything like that before, like the fast bursts that go all the way through the song basically. So I actually spent as much time practicing that track alone as I did with all of the other tracks combined. It's kind of a big feat to change your approach like that, and I'm glad we were able to nail it for the album. For a while, though, we didn't even know if it was going to make it to the album."

    He plays so fluently that at first listen, it may not seem difficult to the listener, but it's really very intricate.

  4. Tom Sawyer - Rush

    Instrumental section is in 7/8 with some 13/16.

  5. Supper's Ready - Genesis

    9/8 is used in the movement "Apocalypse in 9/8." The subtitle even indicates the time measure.

  6. Schism - Tool

    The band described it as largely in 6 1⁄2/8 (what?!).

    The song has several different time signatures. The verse contains alternating measures of 5/8 and 7/8, while the chorus alternates between 6/8 and 7/8.

  7. Spoonman - Soundgarden

    The intro, verses, drum solo, and parts of the bridge are in 7/4 (sometimes transcribed as 14/8). The spoons' solo is in 6/8.

    Choruses, parts of the bridges, and guitar solo are "usual" - in 4/4.

    Intriguing song too, one about the man of spoons.

  8. Them Bones - Alice in Chains

    The verse is in 7/8.

  9. Tubular Bells, Part 1 - Mike Oldfield

    The first riff in 15/8 is made of two bars: the first bar is in 7/8, and the second bar is in 8/8.

  10. Paranoid Android - Radiohead

    It includes 7/8 and flips between 4/4 time and 7/8 time about 13 times.

    Half of the songs here I have on DSi game...

    11. The Newcomers
  11. ?

    Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel

    This song is in 7/4. It only switches to 4/4 for the last two measures of each chorus.

  12. ?

    English Roundabout - XTC

    This song is in 5/4 all the way through.

    13. The Contenders

  13. The Art of Dying - Gojira

    It includes 21/16. It cycles from 4/4 to 2/4 to 21/16 (grouped 5+5+5+3+3) and repeats this pattern during the intro and beginning of the song.

  14. The Becoming - Nine Inch Nails

  15. The Count of Tuscany - Dream Theater

  16. The Sound of Muzak - Porcupine Tree

  17. Ticks and Leeches - Tool

    The song is in 7/8. This is one of Danny Carey's best performances, if not the best.

  18. A Change of Seasons - Dream Theater

    Not only loaded with odd time signatures but also unpredictable changes throughout the entire song. I remember the first time listening to it. Even after several or many listens, it is difficult to comprehend the brilliance and the way it was written.

    I have listened to mostly Progressive Rock for many years. Dream Theater is something really special and right there with the UK giants of the '70s. This is a large chunk of further proof.

    15/8 is used for the 1st verse of the song, broken up into 2 bars: a 6/8 and a 9/8, which equals 15/8 (confirmed by Mike Portnoy himself).

    For the 2nd verse, he used 2 bars of 6/8 (which equals 12/8) and a bar of 3/8.

    Later in the song, there are more alternations between all these meters, grouped in a different way.

  19. Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull

    The second section of the first part of the song is in 10/4.

    Oh, interesting. I did not know that.

  20. Take Five - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

    I first heard this song when I was 10 years old and loved it. Still do. I've learned over the years that I'm really attracted to music with odd time signatures.

  21. All You Need is Love - The Beatles

    The verses are in 7/4.

  22. Question! - System of a Down

  23. The Grudge - Tool

  24. Windowpane - Opeth

  25. Starless - King Crimson

  26. New Millennium Cyanide Christ - Meshuggah

    It repeats the pattern of five bars of 23/16 and one bar of 13/16 from the start.

    Sounds like fun...

  27. Moon - Bjork

8Load More
PSearch List